The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Perks and Trees Revealed

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is going to be a massive game just as its predecessors were. Taking a look at the recently revealed Racial Perks and Talent Trees, though, really shows just how big!

If you read our article that details 40 Minutes of Leaked Skyrim Gameplay, you already have a taste of what this game has in store for us. After many expos and conventions, though, fans have been posting what they have found and remembered about these amazing videos in order to document what perks, abilities, etc. are going to be available for this great upcoming game! Over on the official Bethesda forums, user Sammuthegreat has gone through great lengths to compile all of these in one convenient place for us!

In all of the Elder Scrolls games, races always have their own special abilities, and this makes the game fun for multiple plays as every character can, and will, be so different! Thankfully, we can see some resemblance to the old perks, and a few have been tweaked as well; it appears that the Imperial’s racial ability has changed, as it used to grant a fatigue bonus, though this isn’t nearly as helpful as extra coin will be. along with that, we have the Khajiit who can no longer “intimidate” who they’re speaking too, though night-eye is certainly going to be just as fun as times past.

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Perk Trees

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Speech

Buying and selling price 10% better (5 ranks)

10% price buying from opposite sex

Invest in shops and increase available gold permanently in invested stores

Master Trader – every merchant in world gains 1000 gold for bartering

Buy and sell from any merchant regardless of what they normally buy and sell

Intimidation attempts twice as successful

Persuasion attempts more likely successful

You know, I play a lot of Bethesda games, and I feel like these Speech traits are really going to make me want to invest in them. For instance, in the Fallout series I never really invest in them. Nor in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion either. But this time it almost seems profitable to do so. For instance, “Buy and sell from any merchant regardless of what they normally buy and sell,” seems like it would be a very good skill to have, saving you a lot of time. Of course, I’m going to want to invest in shops because that is just too lucrative to not invest in.

Alchemy

Potions 20% stronger (5 ranks)

Potions for restore health, magicka or stamina are 25% more powerful (maybe ranked)

Poisons 25% more effective (maybe ranked)

Poisons last for twice as many hits

Two ingredients are gathered from plants

50% resistance to all poisons

All negative effects removed from potions and all positive removed from poisons

2 effects of an ingredient are revealed when testing it for the first time (instead of just one)

Again, not something I dabble in. If I do, it’s only after I have beaten the game once (if I plan to play it more than once). Alchemy just takes a lot of time and collecting, and as I recall I was always picking stuff up for it, I just never used it. Kinda useless to pick it up and not use it! 50% resitance to poisons and Potions restoring 25% more H/M/S are definitely worth it, so these will also be great to invest in.

Destruction

Shock damage chance to disintegrate targets if their health is under 10%

Frost damage chance to paralyse targets if health low

Fire damage chance to make low health enemies flee

Place runes 5x farther away

I love magic in these games. I think that being able to create your own spells and whatnot is a absolute blast and I cannot wait to dabble in these. Conjuration seems to be amazing, though possibly even a bit over powered? And when you combine it with Restoration and Destruction (something that you could do in the past, though we’ll see how that pans out with the Talent Tree system), players will just bring the pain train with the flick of the wrist (or finger I guess…).

Restoration

Healing spells also restore stamina

Novice for 50% less magicka etc

Healing spells do 50% more healing

Recharging healing spells

More is recharged with each hit with healing spells (unclear)

Spells more effective against undead

Once a day chance to autocast 250HP restoration when health drops low

Magicka regenerates 25% faster

Alteration

Novice for 50% less etc

Alteration spells have greater duration (ranked)

Absorb 30% magicka that hits you

Enchanting

Enchants are 20% stronger (ranked)

Enchanted armour 25% stronger

Death blows to creatures but not people trap souls for weapon recharge

Health, magicka and stamina enchants stronger

Extra effect on already-enchanted weapon can be applied

Shock, Frost and Fire enchants 25% stronger

This enchanting tree is interesting. Notice that “Death blows to creatures but not people trap souls for weapon recharge.” So obviously we’re dealing with a talent that allows us to kill creatures and trap their souls for our enchanted weapons. This is interesting because it doesn’t make sense that you wouldn’t be able to trap the souls of humans at all. This leads me to believe that there will be something in-game that will allow you to do this. Perhaps an item that you can use or a certain spell that you can use on your defeated enemies. Again, this is purely speculation, but I cannot see why Bethesda wouldn’t allow you to trap the souls of humanoid at all, so there has to be something that hasn’t been revealed yet. If not, then this is Bethesda’s way of combating the over-powereredness of enchanted weapons and armor.

Very self explanatory, though worth nothing that you no longer need to have matching sets of armor to get the 25% armor bonus. With that spec in the tree, you can mix and match! Get your aqua breeches and neon-yellow v-necks ready you hipsters, no longer does your character need to wear matching outfits in order to receive that bonus.

2-handed weapons

2h weapons do 20% more damage (5 ranks)

Attacks with warhammers ignore 25% armour (ranked)

Attacks with battleaxes do extra bleeding damage (ranked)

Attacks with greatswords do extra critical damage (ranked)

Power attacks cost 25% less stamina

Standing power attacks do 25% bonus damage, chance to decapitate

Sprinting power attacks do double (critical) damage

Sideways power attacks hit all targets

Backwards power attacks have 25% chance of paralysis

Archery

Bows do 25% more damage

Zoom in

Zooming slows time

10% crit chance

Move faster with drawn bow

Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies

50% chance of paralyzing for few seconds

Draw bow 30% faster

Sneak

20% harder to detect (ranked)

Sneak attacks do 6x damage with 1h weapons

Sneak attacks with bows do 3x damage

Sneak attacks with daggers do 15x damage (end perk on skill tree)

Noise from armor reduced 50%

No longer activate pressure plates

Sprinting while sneaking performs silent forward roll

Running does not affect detection chance

Crouching can make hostile enemies lose sight of you and search for a target

Sneaking is a big part of gameplay for some palyers, and these traits seem perfect to fit the bill. Notably, we have the last two talents, “running does not affect detection chance” and “crouching can make hostile enemies lose sight of you and search for a target.” These seem like they could become very useful, especially the first one for anyone due to it’s potential for any class/play type. “Sneak attacks with daggers do 15x damage” is going to be a big one, and very useful for those who pick these talent trees, but it also illustrates that there is some sort of end-goal for each talent tree.

Again, this is a community gathered list, and while it is certainly trustworthy it certainly does not mean it is complete. Hopefully we’ll have a complete list in the near future, but with the game being only a little over a month away, I’m sure we’ll all experience this for ourselves and be overwhelmed with all of it, regardless of if we get a whole explanation or not.